By Matilda Ikediobi
Magaji Mato is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN. In this interview, Mato examined the constitutional, ethical and institutional dimensions of judicial independence.
Should the executive be responsible for welfare packages? At what point does the provision of welfare packages for the judges, either at the federal level or the state level, translate into compromise?
This is a clear and burning issue, but I think we have to look at it constitutionally. We run a system of separation of powers. We have three arms of government, and constitutionally, these three arms exist, though they work together, but they exist independently of the other. When you have the executive, you have the judiciary and you have the National Assembly. These are institutions that are independent of one another. Like it has always been said, the funding of the judiciary should be independent. They have a system where it will go through the appropriation, where it will go through the National Assembly. As far as the decency of the profession is concerned, the judiciary has no business accepting gifts or any form of enticements from the executive.
To put the point straight, the point of the executive giving them maybe gifts or building houses for them, these are things that shouldn’t be heard. And no matter how you try to put it or how you try to embellish it, the point remains that we are all human beings, judges are human beings like us. Any gift that comes through to the hands of a judge will definitely have a way of influencing his thinking, and definitely, by way of extension, his judgement over the person that offers such a gift. So it’s not something that should be tolerated, it’s not something that should be discussed in the system as it is.
